The Pyjama Monologues

I miss manifestos? This is not one, however

Ok listen, this is what I want to do.

I want to make a little place where I can put the thoughts, stories and conversations that I can’t publish anywhere else, and I want to do it quickly and kindly and for everyone to think that underneath it all, despite everything, I’m probably nice.

I’ve been quietly interviewing friends, and friends of friends, and a guy who calls me Goddess online, about things like: pleasure, parenting, sexual politics, pain, and I’ll tack those conversations up here every fortnight or so, with most being paid and some less so.

There will probably also be ‘opinions’, and sometimes ‘recommendations’, and some short fiction - ghost stories about motherhood, particularly, though they might take a little longer while I dig around for the courage. It’s a whole different thing, publishing a column to publishing a story. Like, the difference between offering your guests tea or blood. But I’ll get there. I will!

The other thing I should say, even if it sounds a bit earnest, is that I’m hoping this will be a more ‘porous’ writing space, where it can feel like a conversation, about the unusual intimacies of our dark little lives.

I’ve written a column in the Observer Magazine every week for about fifteen years, and it can be a bit of a lonely, or dislocated experience sometimes. You have your weekly thought (every Wednesday by twelve), and you write it quickly, but it only appears in the paper a week and a half later, by which time you’re deep into the next thought. And while you might get a flurry of emails on a Sunday, saying you’re right or wrong or a fucking idiot piece of shit, there is no real chance to talk about it, or rewind. I would like this place to be different, and welcome your ideas for themes, and introductions, and feedback. It should feel I guess, like a conversation in the kitchen at a party. That would be ideal. So! Let’s go.

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